Prior art attempts have been made to provide belts that can be converted between a belt-only configuration and a harness configuration in which leg loops are suspended from the belt to cooperate therewith to form a sit harness for climbing, rappelling or other ascending, descending, hanging or suspending operations.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,189,651 teaches a belt that in its belt-only use configuration stores a pair of straps within a pair of pockets formed on the belt. For subsequent use a harness, free ends of the pair of straps opposite fixed ends secured to the belt are withdrawn from the pockets and connected to a common carabiner secured to the belt proximate the buckle thereof so that each strap loops over itself to define a respective leg loop. Without the leg loops deployed, the belt is described as being suitable for holding up trousers of the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,481,528 teaches a dual belt system in which an inner belt defines a waistband of a harness having selectively deployable leg loops and an outer belt secured to the harness waistband by openable connecting loops. The outer belt acts as a load bearing or utility belt to which various weapon, first aid, and/or other equipment can be carried. As is conventionally done elsewhere in the prior art, the utility belt is provided with quick release type buckle, while the harness waistband does not, instead using a standard climbing buckle to avoid the potential for a hazardous or deadly fall under accidental or inadvertent release of a quick release waistband closure.
However, there remains room for improvement in the area of convertible utility belt and harness systems. In particular, it is desirable to provide such a system which relies on only a single waistband while being capable of providing a quick release function in the utility belt context without compromising the integrity of the waistband closure during use in the harness context.